Chemistry

Academic Programs

Chemistry is a fundamental science and impacts all aspects of one's life. A degree in chemistry is an excellent preparation for many careers in science, industry, government, or commerce. Chemistry skills will prepare students for pre-professional programs such as graduate, pharmacy, medical, dental, or veterinary schools. A student that graduates with a Chemistry degree will have developed practical, analytical, problem-solving, presentation, and communication skills. This exciting and challenging field can lead to a successful future.

Objectives of the Chemistry Department

Understand chemistry from a broad point of view, including its relationship to other sciences.

Research Opportunities

The Chemistry major at College of the Ozarks culminates in three semesters of research during the student's junior and senior years. Topics of current research include use of organic extractants to remove heavy metals from contaminated soil and water, synthesis of heterocyclic and fluorine containing substances, pharmaceuticals in natural waters, capillary electrophoresis of biomolecules, protein interactions, NMR measurements of brain metabolites, and interferences in medical glucose testing. Students often report their research results at national and regional chemistry meetings.

Student Work Opportunities

Chemistry majors and minors have the opportunity to work in the Chemistry department. This is an excellent source of on-the-job training as students have the opportunity to serve by assisting and preparing labs, tutoring students, grading papers, managing hazardous waste, and promoting lab safety.

Laboratories and Equipment

The Chemistry department occupies the third floor of the Pfeiffer Science building. The department has three fully equipped laboratories, including a general chemistry lab, an analytical lab, and an organic lab. The laboratories house a gas chromatograph and a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer, an infrared spectrometer, a high pressure liquid chromatograph, gel electrophoresis and capillary electrophoresis instruments, a bomb calorimeter, a fluorometer, two ultra-violet/visual scanning spectrometers, an electrochemical detector, two rotary evaporators, an atomic absorbance spectrometer, a defractometer, and a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer. All three laboratories have proper safety equipment.

Also available in the Chemistry department is a computer lounge. Available software allows three dimensional and computational modeling of compounds and the ability to predict experimental results. Data from the lab can be processed and interpreted by the computers.

Student Groups

Chemistry Club is a very active club on campus that participates in Homecoming activities, chemistry shows, graduate school visits, chemistry tutoring, highway cleanup, and other activities throughout the school year.

Sigma Zeta an honor society for mathematics and science students.

Departmental Activities and News

Students participating in undergraduate research attend and present their research at American Chemical Society regional and national meetings and the Missouri Academy of Science. Research students in the Chemistry department at College of the Ozarks have consistently won awards at the annual Missouri Academy of Science.

Chemistry students and professors participated in the Silver Dollar City annual Science Day.